>> jarvis: tonight, sharpening the rhetoric. the two campaigns step up their attacks ahead of monday's final debate in florida. jan crawford is there. new questions about the baeg consulate attack and whether more could have been done to save the ambassador. sharyl attkisson investigates. will rising waters doom florida's coastline? anna werner looks at the latest warnings from scientists. and tip tebow traipped marks his signature move. tony guida tells us why. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news." >> jarvis: good evening. i'm rebecca jarvis. the latest fund-raising figures out today show this presidential race is on track to be the first $1 billion campaign. through the end of september, the obama campaign raised a total of $558 million.

romney raised $357 million. and that is not including money raised by all the independent groups. for now, both candidates are in seclusion, preparing for monday's final debate. jan crawford is at the debate site in boca raton, florida. good evening, jan. >> reporter: good evening, rebecca. with just 17 days left until election day what we're seeing is the attacks getting sharper and more personal. with both of the candidates doing that debate prep, the vice president today stepped into the void and he kept slugging. >> i don't blame that baby for crying. that baby-- that baby-- that baby knows what's in store for him or her. if romney wins. >> reporter: in florida, the vice president pulled out his greatest hits as he delivered a montage of campaign attacks. >> the president has a new term. he callses it rom nearbyia. >> reporter: he even brought out an old one, romney's investment history. >> it's a lot more than a swiss

bank account. it's i lot more than his accounts in the grandica men islands. it's about being out of touch. >> reporter: the romney campaign has taken the lead in several national polls. polls also show romney's support growing in swing state. >> pennsylvania you're going to help us elect mitt romney the next president of the united states, aren't you? >> reporter: pennsylvania was leaning to the president, but romney is gaining ground. today, vice presidential nominee paul ryan made one of his first stops in the state, a campaign source saying they're considering spending money on television ads. later in the battleground state of ohio, ryan kept his remarks focused on big themes. his attacks centered on the president's policies. >> this is not just about jobs. it's not just about debt or the economy. it is about the meaning of america. >> reporter: but now with just less than three weeks to go, the

biggest game changer of them all could be what happens right here behind me on this stage monday night, the third and final debate on foreign policy. and it's widely expected to be another monumental clash between the candidates. rebecca. >> jarvis: jan crawford, thank you. with foreign policy the debate's focus, the september 11 terrorist attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya, is expected to come up again. as sharyl attkisson reports, some are asking why american military help from outside libya never came. >> reporter: cbs news has been told that hours into the assault, an unmanned predator drone was sent over the u.s. mission in benghazi. it and other reconnaissance aircraft apparently observed the final hours of the protracted battle. a white house official won't detail the president's actions but told us at the start of the attack, military leaders look at available options and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines

laid out in establishes policies. the official went on to add that a small group of reinforcements was sent from tripoli to benghazi, but declined to say how many or what time they arrived. that didn't help ambassador christopher stevens and three others who were killed. military sources tell cbs news that resources at nearby u.s. bases, sigonella, aviano, and souda bay, including planes which can be good to buzz a crowd to disburse it. sisigonella is just one hour flight from libya. the u.s. fell under attack for more than seven hours. gary berntsen said more help should have been sent. he commanded c.i.a. counter-terrorism missions targeting osama bin laden and led the team after the u.s. embassy bombings in east fisher. >> you find a way to make this happen. there isn't a plan for every single engagement. sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. they made zero adjustments in

this. they stood and they watched and our people died. >> reporter: rick nelson, a former navy pilot who worked in counter-terrorism says such missions are very risky. >> a lot can go right, as we saw with the bin laden raid. it was a very successful event, but also when they're high-risk activities like this, a lot can go wrong, as we saw with the iranian hostage rescue decades ago. >> reporter: yesterday the house oversight committee released 166 pages of documents, including cables ambassador stevens sent to the state department in a failed attempt to keep special security teams in libya. on august 2 he called libya unpredictable, volatile, and violent. on september 11, the day he died, he cabled reports expressing libyans' growing frustration with police and security force too weak to keep the country secure. >> reporter: the administration told me during the attacks, secretary of state hillary clinton asked for permission to fly missions into hir airspace but would not

provide further details. >> jarvis: in london a huge rally organized by british trade unions to partly to mostly the government's austerity measures. they also called for strikes. >> reporter: public sector workers by the tens of thousands across britain raised their voices in angry protests against the government. again, retired teacher jeff heery has never missed one and never will you think this message is getting through? >> no. >> reporter: yet, you still do it. >> people want to know. people around the world want to know why it is lunatics like me come out even though we know it doesn't do anything exw good. >> reporter: but the government may be paying attention now. powerful trade unions are calling for nationwide strikes and retaliation for hundreds of thousands of job cut, pay freezes, and tax increases. demonstrators say despite deep cuts in public spending, they're simply not seeing the improvements to the economy that they were promised. >> the ordinary little person

like myself, i have to suffer. yes, i am here fighting for my rights with thousands of other people. >> reporter: but investment manager justin urquhart stuart said it could be much, much worse. >> you have the headlines of no growth or slow growth. you have the headlines of shops closing. you can understand frustration. what they need to do is actually look at the reality and say actually it's not that bad. it's nothing like greece and spain. >> reporter: britain has been stuck in a double-dip recession but unemployment figures have improved to just under 8%, compared to countries like spain and greece with unemployment over 25%. like britain, this week, those countries called for strikes, too. on november 14, unions in spain, greece, and portugal are all planning nationwide walkouts. charlie d'agata, cbs news, london. >> jarvis: while europe wrestles with its struggling economies, the u.s. faces an unprecedented deadline.

this week, the white house threatened to veto any legislation that would avoid the so-called fiscal cliff unless it includes a tax hike for the nation's wealthiest. if congress does nothing, the fiscal cliff will come at midnight to december 31, when the bush-era tax cuts expire, triggering a hike for 90% of taxpayers. the financial impact of an average middle-income household would be about $2,000, or $166 of automatic withholding per month. the trigger would also slash the defense budget by 50%, and domestic spending by 50% as well. shutting down 1,200 government programs. going over the fiscal cliff, says the congressional budget office, could push the jobless rate over 9%, dragging the country back into recession. mark zandi, chief economist with moody's is here to discuss. mark, thank you for being with us. the idea behind these spending cuts and tax hikes was to force

congress to make a decision on this. if they do not, what happens next for our economy? >> well, tax rates rise for everybody, and of course of course, that would cause people to pull back. we'd have big government spending cuts from everything to the defense budget to amtrak to the park service. businesses would grow very nervous, obviously, because they're going to get hit by less spending by consumers. they'll cut workers and as you point out, we'll be back into recession, unemployment will rise. it would likely abe very deep recession because it would be very difficult for policy makers to respond to that. the federal reserve really wouldn't know what to do. >> jarvis: from a business standpoint what are they doing now to prepare and how is this uncertainty impacting them? >> businesses are very nervous about this. they can't get their minds around how policy makers are going to nail this thing down. they're already pulling back. it's not like they're laying off workers. that would mean we'd go back into recession now. but they're not hiring and they're not investing and the economy is weak because they can'ticism leap engage until

they get some narrative with respect to how policy makers are going to solve this problem. >> jarvis: mark zandi, thank you. >> thank you. >> jarvis: some better news at the pump. gas prices plummeted this week. nationally a gallon of regular fell below $3.70, down 11 cents in a week. in california, the price plunged 15 cent this week, below $4.50 a gallon. this is time of year you can expect to see lower prices. later, a program that offers a helping hand to kids with mothers in prison. some anniversary, the children's story "charlotte's web" turns 60. and rising tides-- what climate change is doing to the florida coast. those stories when the cbs evening news continues.

break continues to spread. the centers for disease control reports today the death toll rose to 23. the agency confirmed 281 cases in 16 states. that is 13 new cases since yesterday. the fungal meningitis is not contagious. florida is a battleground state, but there's another fight that president obama and mitt romney are hearing about. more than 100 scientists and economists signed a letter to both presidential candidates warning about the dangers of rising sea levels in florida. anna werner reports. >> reporter: the presidential candidates may not be talking about rising sea waters, but south florida residents are. this week, higher-than-normal tides flooded miami's south beach, swamping streets, people, and businesses. >> it's been like a high tide coming in, but there's no explanation. it hasn't really been raining. >> reporter: top scientists say in the future, climate

change will make flooding much worse. they drew up a map to illustrate the expected flood risk along florida's coastline in 2060. the color red meantime underwater. and president ben kirtman of the university of miami says the long-term projections look much worse. >> by twen00, when sea level rise has been a full foot, i would say that 10 to 5 million people in florida would have to be relocated. >> reporter: that's why florida's top scientists and environmentalists sent this letter to both presidential candidates asking them to address the issue. >> i think this is probably the single greatest problem that the world is facing today. and i'm concerned that partisanship has made it difficult for us to be pragmatic, to try to figure out pragmatic solutions. >> reporter: to fight the rising threat, south florida government officials have agreed to cooperate on solutions. kirtman says fixes should include new pumping systems and

canals, but planning needs to begin now. >> it takes years to figure out how to do it. it takes years to build it. it takes years to raise the money to do it. if you're waiting till sea level rises a foot before you build it, it's too late. >> reporter: it's not just the east coast. on the west coast, another study said san francisco's airport could be flooded within decades. >> jarvis: still ahead, their mothers are in prison so where can these kids turn? >> jarvis: o

jail, their children suffer and run a higher risk of going to prison themselves some day. a program aimed at breaking the psyche cell helping hundreds of children in oklahoma, which

imprisons more women per capita than any other state. john bentley reports. >> this is n. >> reporter: while this may look like a typical art class, these students all share one thing in common-- at least one of their parents is in prison. anger is an emotion shared by most of the kids at this program called new hope. tomeisha smith's mother has been in and out of jail since she was eight years old. >> she acts like a kid, like my age instead of bng a momma, or mother. >> reporter: 85% of the women sent to prison in oklahoma have children. as mothers serve time, new hope is the only comprehensive program in the state set up to help those kids. over 400 are currently enrolled in the program with more than 100 on a waiting list tshaka rivers is the director of programs at new hope. his dad was in prison while he was growing up, and rivers himself was arrested in the ninth grade. >> i might be the only male,

positive male figure in their life. one of the girls grabbed my arm in front of her mom and said, "i wish you were my daddy." i mean, what-- what do you say? >> reporter: the nonprofit program can includes tutoring, meals, and counseling. it also requires service to others. here, lending a hand to the homeless. smith says she has a desire to help other kids with parents in prison but plans to become a psychologist, she knows what she'll tell them. >> though they have their parents' genes in them doesn't mean they have to be the same person. they can be their own person. >> children with parents in prison are five times more likely to end up in prison themselves. new hope believes it has broken the cycle. over the past 10 years, none of the young people who came through their doors has spent a day behind bars. john bentley, cbs news, tulsa, oklahoma. >> jarvis: just ahead on the cbs evening news?

you can trademark a pose? tim tebow is doing it.

that went viral. fans copying quarterback tim tebow kneeling in thankful prayer after a successful play. but it's one thing to copy the football player. another to make money off of it. tony guida explanation. >> reporter: remember when everybody was doing this, tebowing, it was called, so last year. nonetheless, the man for whom the gesture is named now owns it after a yearlong legal battle, tebowing is trademarked. >> what he's effectively done is prohibited other people from being able to capitalize financially on the gesture he made famous and on his name. >> reporter: tebow says he

doesn't want anyone to profit from tebow main yark including himself, meaning there will be no tebow jewelry, no tebow clocks, no tebow apes, no tebow sneakers be no tebow pencils, no tebow kites, no tebow skateboards and definitely no tebow painty hose. nothing tebow for sale unless tebow decide to sell it. >> people can still tebow if they want. they can do it as a mass audience or one on one. they can use the term. the media can use the term. "is the night live" can still parody him and he doesn't have any rights to block that. >> reporter: at least two companies tried to market tebow paraphernalia last year. tebow's lawyer stopped them. but the tebow mania buzz seemed to have died, maybe because he's no longer a starting nfl quarterback, jut a sub. >> jarvis: coming up, along came a spider, a 60-year celebration of "charlotte's web." >> jarvis: finally tonight it

was 60 years ago this week that writer e.b. white introduced young leaders to charlotte, the spider in his classic, "charlotte's web." elaine quijano takes a look at this tale of loyalty and friendship and the painful realities of life and death. >> reporter: e.b. white's classic, "charlotte's web," has sold millions of copies, and spawned two movies. >> my name is charlotte,. >> reporter: the story centers on the friendship between sharyl orbit a spider, and wilbur, a pig destined for slaughter. writer e.b. white based wilbur on an actual sickly pig from his farm in maine says sirnl the author of "the story of charlotte's web." >> he did everything he could to save him. stayed up all night, had the veterinarian over. nothing worked. the pig died and he's much more

sad than heute aught to have been and it stays in his mind. >> reporter: as for the spider, white's barn was filled with them, and for her name, he consulted with experts. >> and he discovered he had the wrong scientific name for the spired. he learned name was name was arraignia kavadica. >> reporter: even as charlotte saefsz kill burr's life with her clever webs, white allows charlotte to die after laying her eggs, just as real barn spiders do. her death so moved the author, he faltered when he recorded the audio book. >> when charlotte is dying and he has to read those words, no one was with her when she died, and 16 times his voice cracked. or he got tears in his eyes, and on the 17th take, 20 years after it was published, he finally was able to read it without breaking down.

>> nobody of the hundreds of people that had visited the fair knew that a gray spider had played the most important part of all. no one was with her when she died. >> reporter: this year, the library of congress designated "charlotte's web" a book that shaped america. officials called the story notable for the way it treats death as a natural and inevitable part of life. elaine quijano, cbs news, new york. >> jarvis: and that is the cbs evening news. later on cbs "48 hours." i'm rebecca jarvis. cbs news in new york. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs ioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org work is moving along on the san

mateo bridge. a popular tradition in the bay ar game" came at an odd time in t closed captioning for the weekend. how the earthquake safety work -- closed for the weekend. how the work is going on the san mateo bridge. >> the big game an odd time. >> the heated debate over prop 30 is getting hotter. the governor's latest bay area push to get his tax measure passed. cbs 5 eyewitness news is next. when i take a picture of this check, it goes straight to the bank. oh. oh look the lion is out! no mommy no! don't worry honey, it only works on checks. deposit checks from your smartphone with chase quickdeposit.